Bothell residents Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe and Dawn McCravey are the top-two vote-getters in the Legislative District 1 state-senator category of the primary and are headed for a showdown in November.

During their campaign for a four-year term, local voters have been passionate about the race, which also featured Guy Palumbo. At press time, incumbent McAuliffe has 44.65 percent of the vote, McCravey has 41.71 and Palumbo has 13.64.

The Reporter has been bombarded by letters to the editor and Facebook comments accusing both sides’ supporters of stealing and vandalizing the other’s political signs, and people have written lengthy missives about their personal pros and cons of both candidates.

“I don’t pay a lot of attention to letters to the editor,” McAuliffe said. “People get passionate and they write letters and I think that’s a good thing, but there’s a whole bigger number out there, people that know who I am and the work I’ve done.

“I’m very passionate about my work in education, the leadership I’ve provided and the direction we’re going. I have a lot more to do,” she added. “We (also) do a lot for people with disabilities, we do a lot for people with special needs and our elderly, and I think that this is a vote of confidence.”

McAuliffe, a Democrat, has been a Washington state senator for nearly 20 years, and was previously on the Northshore School District Board of Directors from 1977-1991.

Former special-education instructor McCravey, a Republican, was first elected to the Northshore School Board in 2007, and served as board president from 2009-11.

“I am really grateful for the support we received from people, and I am looking forward to the general election, debating the issues and going that route,” McCravey said. “I’ve been doorbelling every day and am out meeting the community and I’m receiving a lot of positive feedback at the door.”

On the letters to the editor, she added: “I think people do need to be passionate, especially about education and maybe having a change in government and priorities in Olympia.”

Both McAuliffe and McCravey’s supporters write that they are efficient leaders in the education realm; some letter writers state the opposite for each candidate.

McAuliffe wants to stop cuts and fully fund basic education and higher education. She’s also focused on investing in students’ futures with early learning and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education.

McCravey’s top priorities are education funding and reform, balancing the budget without special sessions and encouraging a business-friendly state that maintains Washington’s natural resources. She also supports charter schools.

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Other early results, which affect Bothell and Kenmore, at press time:

• In Congressional District 1, John Koster (R) and Suzan DelBene (D) lead the way in the primary.

Koster has 44.61 percent; DelBene, 22.68 percent.

• For the short-term Congressional District 1 race, Koster has 35.53 percent of the votes. DelBene has 25.19 percent.

• At State Representative Position No. 1, Bothell’s incumbent Derek Stanford (D) and Bothell’s Sandy Guinn (R) lead the way.

Stanford, 46.68 percent; Guinn, 26.44 percent.

• At State Representative Position No. 2, incumbent Luis Moscoso (D) took 95.95 percent and 93.48 percent of the vote in King and Snohomish counties, respectively, but was listed as 100 percent on the Washington State Elections site because they don’t include write-in votes.